Man of Steel. Nolan Superman Reboot.

Well, we've been talking about Luthor for a bit, but how about other villains that could appear? The three biggest ones that could appear besides Luthor are Brainiac, Darkseid, and Doomsday.

Brainiac and Darkseid because they're highly intelligent and evil aliens that provide a counterpoint to Superman being a benevolent alien. Though, I think that the New Gods would somehow need some prior involvement before the lord of Apokolips directly gets involved.

Doomsday because he's one of the select few villains to be powerful enough for Superman.

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Metallo. Bizarro Superman. Zod. Titano the Super-Ape. Lobo.

Of course, don't you know anything about ALCHEMY?!- Twin clones of Ivan the Great

Mr. Mxyzptik.

ophelia, you're breaking my heart

The Kryptonite Man, Toyman, Parasite

Theres sex and death and human grime in monochrome for one thin dime and at least the trains all run on time but they dont go anywhere.

^^I'd watch that film.

Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.

Ah, yes. I'd forgotten about the Ultra-Humanite. What's interesting is that, while they transplanted Ultra's brain into another body (I think at first it was into the body of a female actress) they kind of ended up turning Luthor into the Ultra Humanite, at least physically.

It'd be so trippy.

ophelia, you're breaking my heart

I'm going to hesitantly put forward Livewire. As a punk henchman, obviously.

Remember Lola from The Transporter? Kinda like that. Then stick her in Chiana's makeup and you're set.

I'm a skeptical squirrel

@maxwellelvis: Zod is already the Big Bad of the first film, he's been confirmed.

I guess other villains could include Atomic Skull and Mongul I. Maybe even Ruin and Conduit.

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Speaking of Professor Hamilton, Richard Schiff has been cast to play the part. Could possibly lead to Ruin.

Theres sex and death and human grime in monochrome for one thin dime and at least the trains all run on time but they dont go anywhere.

I too would totally watch a Mxyzptlk movie - he's tied for my favorite Superman villain (with Metallo). It's a damn shame that kind of thing would probably never happen because... well... yeah.

Haven't we heard that the villain is going to be Zod or a Zod-like character? Again?

Calling it now: first movie has Zod, second movie has Luthor, and the trilogy ends with Darkseid resulting once again in all important roles in story being given to villains we already know.

Though to be fair there aren't that many Superman villains that could both carry a movie like this (without Iron Man 2-esque reimagining) and wouldn't likely require either another character (like Intergang), several movies (like Ruin), or both (the multitude of villains who could be established through Lex-Corp) to facilitate their set-up in some way.

I don't actually mind Luthor for that reason - not only does he, as a Corrupt Corporate Executive - work as a Big Bad, but once established he can also be used by pulling the strings (or trying to pull the strings) behind another villain (though this might result in the Superman series repeating what the newer Spider-Man series is trying to do with Norman Osborn).

edited 3rd Oct '12 1:10:42 AM by KnownUnknown

"The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy, paraphrasing Mark Twain.

Or emulating Xavier/Magneto in First Class.

See the problem with either of those approaches is that it's been done before, and better, and I think we've overdosed on Luthor for the next two decades (at the very minimum). Moviegoers have long memories.

I'm a skeptical squirrel

IIRC there was an Elseworlds team-up of a Steampunk Luthor and Ra's al Ghul.

I wouldn't say we are overdosing on Luthor, since we've yet to actually get a decent non-campy Luthor. They just need to have Luthor create some form of elite mook that can pose a *physical* challenge to Superman, so it doesn't degenerate into "Kryptonite, again?"

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^^ Actually, the idea of a background villain hasn't really been done much in movies, let alone superhero movies, because movies tend to want all of their villains to be front and center, and because they tend to not have a unified continuity they can't really rely on setting up villains whose entire role is to have major but supporting background influence on continuity across several movies leading up to a point.

In contrast, First Class didn't do this with Magneto at all (as he was not the antagonist of the movie by any means), nor with Shaw (who was more of a straightforward upfront Megalomaniacal Big Bad). The movie was more of an origin story / Start of Darkness for Magneto, to be honest, only paying off villainy wise at the very end.

The only superhero movies I've seen so far that seem to be leading up to this - because they haven't actually gone there yet, but only look like they might - are Avengers with Thanos and ASM with Osborn. Maybe. It's unlikely that either will eventually do as such.

edited 3rd Oct '12 2:49:06 PM by KnownUnknown

"The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy, paraphrasing Mark Twain.

And you just know they'd have Paul Ruebens play Mxyzptlk...

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@Known Unknown:

What do you expect from the end of the trilogy? A completely original villain? That would be a huge letdown for everyone if they made a completely original villain instead of someone that we all know and Love to Hate.

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Darkseid hasn't been seen on the big screen. If I liked the character*

I would still want to see him in film despite the overexposure he's recieved in other mediums. Likewise Luthor hasn't been potrayed well in film so it would be nice to see him done well.

The impression I got is that Snyder thinks Luthor is silly and so it's unlikely he will turn up in this film or any sequels.

Am I a good man or a bad man?

^^ You seem to think Superman has only three villains. Where did that come from?

"The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy, paraphrasing Mark Twain.

Three powerful villains.

Luthor is only a potential threat if cakes are involved

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@Napoleon: Awesome. I'll have to look that up.

But that's terrible!

ophelia, you're breaking my heart

If they play their cards right they could do Zod, Luthor and finish it with Brainiac.

I'd not say Luthor, but Superman without Luthor showing up at least once is just... wrong.

It'd be easy to tentatively tie them together too. Zod could lead to backstory about Krypton and hints toward city disappearances a certain Kryptonian super computer. Luthor could get some Kryptonian tech from a mysterious source. Elements from both of these could tie into the arrival/presence of Brainiac.

Or they could do something completely different.
We haven't seen Superman defend the Earth against an alien invasion yet. That could be interesting. Though the go-to invaders would be Darkseid's army.

Metallo would actually be an interesting villain to use.

I'd love to see Mr. Mxyptik in a cinematic form, but I wouldn't expect him any more than I would have expected Bat Mite to show up halfway through The Drak Knight Rises.

Bizarro or even a version of Superman Prime (the DCAU one) would have worked, but having more Krytonians (and... whatever they decide Bizarro is) would seem a little extraneous.

Mega Man fanatic extraordinaire

Metallo's one of those villains I fully expect to show up under the employ of someone else, or at least having his beginnings be kickstarted by another villain. Maybe Luthor.

He's certainly a "Superman is already established" villain, so I'm not disappointed about not seeing him this time around. But he could be a great sequel villain, especially if they run with a "organization distrusts Superman and attempt to develop ways to counter him," which could easily be run by Luthor and result in characters like Titano or Parasite.

I'd've loved, absolutely loved the DCAU version of Brainiac to be the villain here.

But enough about the small fry and meaningless adversaries, clearly the villain of this entire series should be the mighty Titano.

edited 3rd Oct '12 5:37:37 PM by KnownUnknown

"The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy, paraphrasing Mark Twain.

I'd prefer Brainiac as the villain of the second movie with Luthor as a secondary villain who becomes the main one for the third.

What, and deny Titano?

"The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy, paraphrasing Mark Twain.